Aspiring guitar builder Jukka Sollasvaara and one of his friends have built what might just be the world’s heaviest acoustic guitar in a madcap experiment that swaps out tonewoods for concrete.
Guitar World is no stranger to alternative building materials, having been impressed and stupefied by 50lbs copper guitars, fully-working aquarium builds, and an axe made from 10,000 leaves. But this might just be the wildest DIY job we've seen as far as acoustic builds go.
Weighing a shoulder-shattering 62.8lbs, the experiment was intended as a cheap laugh, with Sollasvaara confessing, “Me and my friend built an acoustic guitar from concrete because we thought the idea was really funny.”
But the silly idea exceeded his expectations, and it even sounds pretty tasty. With and without distortion.
“I’m actually quite proud of how it turned out,” he reflects. “This guitar has a tonne of sustain!”
It's made from a single concrete cast, with its body, neck, and fretboard made of 100% concrete. Terrazzo, a blend of yellow crushed stone and concrete, was used for the body and neck, and ebony crushed stone and concrete for the fretboard.
The would-be sound hole was filled with polystyrene during the build process, and a rebar skeletal frame was also placed inside the cast to help the guitar maintain structural integrity, along with a Perspex frame removed after the concrete had set. That part of the project did not look fun.
Its tuners are made from nuts and bolts to keep up the brutalist aesthetic. Strings are locked in place between two nuts, and tuning is completed by turning bolts beneath the headstock.
The look is finished with a crushed stone and epoxy rosette, helping the guitar look more like a garden ornament than something you'd see on stage at Madison Square Garden. Still, it looks surprisingly pretty.
Fans of ultra-thin speed necks a la Jackson and Charvel look away now, as the neck measured a whopping 3.5 inches when it was first prized from its cast.
The guitar also weighed 79lbs before it was sanded down, meaning 12lbs – roughly the weight of three standard acoustic guitars – was ultimately shaved off while giving the build a more accessible neck profile.
The neck profile ended up a more grab-able 1.57 inches by the time it was finished.
A finger-sized hole has also been drilled into the bottom of the guitar's body to mount a piezo pickup. The frets, bridge, and nut are the only parts of the guitar made from more traditional materials.
“In order to grow into a great guitar builder, I need to experience things, even if they seem quite self-evident,” says Sollasvaara.
“Concrete is not the best material for acoustic guitar, but I have learned something from every build. I think we did a pretty good job solving the problems that a 100% concrete body, neck, and fretboard construction might cause.”
